


T'hy'la (T'hai'la)

by gammacorvi



Series: Of Friendship and Wormholes [2]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 08:43:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7427947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gammacorvi/pseuds/gammacorvi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Spock. I didn't expect you here that early.”</p><p>The Doctor has stepped up behind him. His eyebrows are drawn together and he looks positively murderous.</p><p>“I’m afraid that Jim’s gone,” he states.</p>
            </blockquote>





	T'hy'la (T'hai'la)

The hospital room that the Captain has occupied for the last three weeks is empty. The bed is stripped.

For a moment Spock’s world tilts, nauseatingly. He notices that the Captain's PADD and a few other personal items that were scattered across the room are gone. The 3D chess set that occupied the table in the corner likewise. A small piece of red granite lies on the floor. Spock retrieves it, his hand not quite steady.

“Spock. I didn't expect you here that early.”

The Doctor has stepped up behind him. His eyebrows are drawn together and he looks positively murderous.

“I’m afraid that Jim’s gone,” he states.

He must have seen some emotion in Spock’s eyes because he adds:

“Good God, man, I didn't mean it like that. Bloody Section 31 picked him up.”

~~~

It takes a while for Spock to get the whole story because the Doctor is even more emotional than usual and his speech is full of expletives.

“They’re going to make a lab rat out of him,” he says in the end. “It’s the very thing I tried to spare him from. But apparently they sent in some sweet talking Section 31 operative last night and she convinced him that it was all for the greater good and that they would save millions of dying babies across the Alpha Quadrant, with new advances in tissue regeneration, if they could just put him in a scanner and record every tiny detail of his recovery process.”

He comes up for some air and continues.

“Do you have any idea what they will do to him? He has no idea what he’s getting into. They’re going to wire him up and tie him down and stick sensors into him and it's going to go on until they’re satisfied they have all the data they need. Which is going to be YEARS. Jim is never going to command a starship again. By the time they’re done with him he’s going to be a wreck. Do you think they care about his overall recovery? They’ll… “

“Surely, Doctor…”

“No, you listen to me you damn green-blooded hobgoblin. This is Section 31 we’re talking about. They made him sign a waiver which means that he essentially threw away any human rights he has for the greater good of humanity. They can keep him indefinitely if that’s what they want, and believe me, with Khan’s blood coursing through his system they will want to run tests on him until well into the next millennium. That's the kind of ethics they employ. I know. I’ve been there. I’ve worked with them for 6 months back in the Academy days. I almost quit Starfleet over it. And there is nothing… “

He stabs a finger in the air repeatedly and Spock notices that he is close to tears.

“... absolutely nothing that we can do. Even with Marcus gone… “

He goes on while Spock’s brain explores possible avenues of retrieving the Captain. He has no doubt that what the Doctor says is essentially true. He has had enough dealings with Section 31 over the years to confirm that at least some of their activities are in zones that are ethically murky at best.

His communicator vibrates and when he takes it out he sees that there is a video message from the Captain.

“If you will excuse me, Doctor,” he says and steps outside the room.

“And already you have other priorities,” the Doctor calls out in a stricken voice. “Let’s just abandon Jim. He can go hang himself, right? Life goes on… “

The message was recorded in one of the tiny spaceport communication cubicles on Luna. Jim is rubbing a hand over his face then stares into the camera with bloodshot and earnest eyes.

“So, Spock,” he says, “I guess we’ll not be seeing each other for a while.”

There is a strange undertow in his words that Spock can't read.

“Looks like I essentially signed away my human rights for the foreseeable future.”

There is more face rubbing and a rather brief, lopsided grin.

“Bones is going to tell you I have no idea what I got myself into and maybe he’s right. You know that girl, Lucille Harewood, the one her father infused with Khan’s blood? She’s been in their _care_ …”

He spits out the word.

“... ever since. There’ve been some problems and if they can get an adequate replacement they’ll release her and she’ll be all right. I hope.”

He looks to the side taking a few long breaths until he comes back to the camera, staring into it with bitter resolve.

“I don't know how this will all turn out. I didn't buy that crap about the common good, but you never know. I need you to locate that girl and her family and put her under Vulcan protection. You guys are the only people I trust at the moment. You hear me? That's an order Mr. Spock. And take care of our ship. Don't let her fall into the wrong hands. I know I can count on you.”

He hesitates for a moment.

“Kirk out.”

The picture on Spock's comm screen winks out and there is silence.

Spock rubs the red granite he still holds in his hand. It has an inclusion of tiny, delicate crystals on one side. Spock picked it up on a pilgrimage to Mount Seleya on Vulcan years ago, when he was still planning to attempt the Kolinahr. Now it is a priceless artifact that he gave to his Captain last week.

The Captain had taken it and listened to its story without visible emotion.

“Thank you, Spock,” he finally said, folding the stone in his right hand, his thumb sliding back and forth over the rough surface.

Then he looked up to meet Spock's eyes.

“We’ve been through the apocalypse together, my friend,” he said.

The stone had been resting on the Captain's night table ever since and more than once Spock had seen him explore the rough surface with restless fingers. That he left it behind, seemingly discarded on the floor is a message that Spock has no trouble understanding.

~~~

The shunts and ports that have been installed in Jim’s body to interface with the sensors in the medical lab are not supposed to hurt. At least this is what he is being told on a daily basis.

“This does not hurt, does it?”

“This is not supposed to hurt.”

“This technology is completely painless.”

“Does this hurt? Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon!”

On the Enterprise medical examinations are always non-invasive. Jim has never seen a scanner that actually has to touch the skin to work. He has had to learn the hard way that that kind of equipment is regarded as hopelessly inadequate for the purposes of Section 31’s scientists and researchers. Here the scanners are supposed to be inserted _into_ the body, to be considered reliable. He supposes what’s really going on is that they’re all sadists and he tells them so from time to time, but they only laugh at him, delightedly, as if he has made a good joke.

If Jim had been born in later times he would have recognized the implants as something very similar to Borg technology. That raises interesting questions about the true origins of Section 31’s technology and the space-time continuum that likely are never going to be asked or answered.

In the meantime Jim is only certain that the technology implanted in his body is painful. It hurts with a deep, constant throb that wears on his mental energy.

He is quite sure they would give him painkillers if he asked for them, but he does not, because he is already sedated much of the time and hardly feels like himself anymore.

Jim has always been a physically active person but here he is only permitted two brief walks along a brightly lit corridor, decorated with colourful pieces of art that he does not understand. Possibly Spock would be able to appreciate them if he were here.

Occasionally when his brain gets too muddled from the drugs, he asks himself why the hell he agreed to this. He should be back on the Enterprise by now, working on the refit, Spock at his side. He heard Spock and Scotty had planned a complete redesign of the warp core but he was whisked away before he ever heard the details. So he’s trying to work out the modifications in his head, wondering what they have come up with.

This is what holds him up. That eventually this will end and that he will be able to go back to the Enterprise.

Alternatively he entertains himself with desperate daydreams in which Spock or Bones or possibly Scotty, because he’s good at last minute interventions, show up and somehow manage to make the situation more bearable. It is, however, not something he is counting on. Being here, of his own free will and not in a life-threatening situation, there is no reason to wait for someone to come and save him, is there?

He regresses into a mental state were the abandonment he experienced in his childhood seems more real than the achievements and the friendships he forged as a grown man.

~~~

Earthbound Spaceport comes into view on the starboard side. It is a commercial Space Station in orbit around Pluto and an important port of call on the way in and out of the solar system. Spock has discovered that it is also the location for Section 31’s medical facilities, that are partly located on Earthbound and are partly drilled into Pluto bedrock, out of sight and out of the reach of prying sensors. It had taken the combined effort of the Doctor's connections in the medical community and Ambassador Sarek’s considerable political clout to bring Spock here.

The process was maddeningly slow and Spock had to tell himself that even if the Captain's position at the moment was possibly uncomfortable it was likely not in any way life-threatening. Or as the Doctor had put it:

“Oh, believe me, Spock, they’re going to take very good care of their new specimen. It’s not the danger to his life I’m worried about.”

Spock is here under a new and obscure clause of the treaty between the Federation and New Vulcan, that gives the Vulcan Science Academy the right to send observers to any scientific project that might further the rebuilding of the Vulcan race and culture.

Even so Spock's inclusion into the Khan Study, as it is unofficially called, had been fought by Section 31 every step of the way and it had needed the intervention of his father, Admiral Nogura and some unnamed gray eminence, who had been close to Admiral Marcus, to get him to where he is now.

Spock is well aware that his position is uncertain and can be terminated at a moments notice if he makes a single misstep. There is no legal action any of them can take, because what Section 31 does is perfectly legal, if unethical. A problem Spock intends to address once the Captain's well-being is secured.

Spock steeples his hands in front of his face to calm himself. It has been eight weeks and Spock's half-human brain has been worrying itself sick with all the ways the Captain might have come to irreparable harm while his First Officer was unavailable. Even worse, the Captain might believe that Spock has given up on him and is not coming.

His counterpart, forever meddling in the affairs of time and space has given him an account of Admiral Kirk’s death in the other universe. Evidently the Admiral was lost while encountering a space phenomenon called the Nexus and subsequently declared dead. Many years later another Captain of the Enterprise, Captain Picard came across the Nexus and found the Admiral, suspended in time, still alive. Spock’s counterpart, however, tragically never saw him again. The Admiral died, helping Captain Picard in some ways Spock’s counterpart does not specify.

The old man recounts the story in a matter-of-fact way but Spock can feel the bone-deep hurt accompanying it.

Spock’s loyalty to his Captain runs deep. It has grown along the fault lines of several life and death encounters into what it is today. Now Spock vows, not to any higher power, but to himself that he will never give up on his Captain. That he will strive to either recover his Captain's life or his katra, whatever is possible. He is well aware that a vow like this can become a hard thing to uphold in the future. But he would rather chase ghosts across the galaxies then give up on something that might not be lost.

~~~

One day, when Jim is taken out of the tank he spends much of his time suspended in, surfacing from his drug induced state, the gel cleaned out of his eyes and his vision clearing, Spock is standing there, straight as always, hands resting behind his back, looking disapproving and slightly appalled. Jim is so ridiculously grateful to see him that he starts to cry.

Because this is Spock the situation is neither embarrassing nor awkward, the way it would be with anybody else. He rests his hand reassuringly on Jim’s shoulder, not saying a word, dark eyes calm and steady. Later they take a walk along the corridor, Spock’s hand resting lightly under Jim’s elbow while he is making pointed remarks about the artists of said art, all of whom he has apparently studied. Jim is not surprised.

He is supposed to go back in the tank for the night but Spock intervenes and a verbal fight ensues in which the head researcher, the tall, blond woman that Jim secretly calls Dr. Mengele and Spock are screaming at each other. By that time the drugs have worn off enough that Jim understands that Spock is satisfied about his physical condition but has grave concerns about his mental state.

He has never heard Spock scream at anyone before.

Later, over a game of chess he asks Spock why he bothers. Spock looks at him as if he has lost his mind and Jim has to clarify the question twice before Spock glares at him and says:

“Because you are my Captain and as your First Officer I’m responsible for your well-being.”

Then he pauses and, his gaze softening slightly he adds:

“And because you are my friend.”

Of course, Spock wins the game.

~~~

In the morning Spock is gone and Jim is devastated but does his best not to show it. Apparently Dr. Mengele pulled some strings and had him removed. By that time Jim’s mental condition has improved so much that he realizes that he had been kept in a constant drug induced haze. He is suddenly very scared. Dr. Mengele is inserting the sensors into their ports, giving her customary little speech about exploring the impact of Khan’s blood on his mental functions once they are done with this battery of tests. She calls it ‘exploring the impact of Khan’s savagery’ and she is obviously fascinated by the subject. This is when Jim finally realizes that he has no control whatsoever over his fate. And that she has no intention of ever letting him go. He feels the sudden urge to fight his way out of here but manages to suppress it, right up until he is in the tank and the drugs hit his system. Then he loses it.

~~~

They take him out of the tank and restrain him on the metal table that takes up the middle of the examination room, because apparently he has an allergic reaction to the drug. It is the worst experience of Jim’s life. Titanium reinforced straps hold down his body and there is no wiggle room, no give. Jim, slightly claustrophobic at the best of times, almost panics. Thankfully the episode is short, because as soon as they turn their backs he feels the telltale tingle of a transporter field and a second after finds himself unrestrained and in a heap on the pad of the transporter room of the Enterprise.

A moment after Bones fusses over him, passing the sensor of the tricorder over his body, telling him to keep still. His head is in Uhura's lap and Spock is hovering, saying:

“My apologies, Captain. Plan A deteriorated so quickly through my own fault that we had no other recourse but to implement plan B.”

It is, hands down, the most glorious and joyful moment of his life.

~~~

The Enterprise is still in Luna Shipyards but Scotty’s improved transporter and Chekhov's skill in hacking through Section 31’s beaming shields, penetrating Pluto bedrock and locking on to the right target, did the trick.

Section 31, of course, log an official report and threaten legal action but Spock talks to Sarek and the whole thing ends up, somehow, going away. Spock refuses ever after to tell how it was accomplished. Jim assumes the Vulcans threatened to go to war, but he never finds out what really went down.

“Plausible deniability,” Spock tells him in his best need-to-know voice and Jim decides to let it go. If he can't trust Spock, who can he trust?

Bones has a hell of a time to remove the implants and curses all the way to the operating room. The procedures are excruciatingly painful, but Jim is so happy to be back with his family on the Enterprise that he would put up with any amount of pain.

Somehow he feels reborn.

~~~

Spock seeks out his Captain shortly after he goes through the first rounds of surgery to remove the implants.

The Captain is in pain but in good spirits. It makes Spock happy, although he would never admit this to anyone.

“I bring greetings from the Harewood family,” he says. “They are among a group of humans who have relocated to New Vulcan to aid in the rebuilding effort. I am told that they are under the protection of my father.”

The Captain thanks him and asks him to take a seat.

Spock holds out his hand instead.

“I believe this is yours,” he says, holding out a piece of red Vulcan granite with a small inclusion of crystals on one side.

The Captain takes it and they look at each other.

“Ki'nam-tor nash-veh heh kwon-sum dungau nam-tor t'hai'la t'du,” Spock says and the Captain smiles.

“You are my friend, too. I will never forget what you did for me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Ki'nam-tor nash-veh heh kwon-sum dungau nam-tor t'hai'la t'du.
> 
> (I have been and always shall be your friend)
> 
> courtesy of http://www.vli-online.org/phrase.htm
> 
> "With regard to the recent letters about how T’hy’la is pronounced, I think I can provide the definitive answer. Just after the novelization of ST:TMP appeared, Gene Roddenberry was on holiday in Scotland, visiting Janet Quarton, who for many years ran Star Trek clubs in Britain. There had been quite a bit of discussion in K/S circles about this very useful word, so I took the chance to ask him how it was pronounced. He replied “TUH-HIGH-LA,” as best I can render it, the first syllable very short, the second stressed. Since several Scottish fans were present, we have always used that form. I suppose the man who made up the word should have the final say."  
> (https://www.quora.com/Vulcans-How-would-one-pronounce-Thyla-Is-there-any-explanation-given-for-it-beyond-the-friend-brother-lover)


End file.
